The Nightingale in the Garden of Love: The Poems of Üftade
192
The Nightingale in the Garden of Love: The Poems of Üftade
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781905937356 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Anqa Publishing |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2005 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 648 KB |
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Read an Excerpt
The Nightingale in the Garden of Love
The Poems of Hazret-i Pir-i Üftade
By Paul Ballanfat, Angela Culme-Seymour
Anqa Publishing
Copyright © 2005 Paul BallanfatAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-905937-35-6
CHAPTER 1
The' invocation of Hu
Hu keeps on providing the powers of the pilgrim
seekers
At each moment a green cushion on which are seated
the lovers.
It is constant strength for the gnostics
To pass beyond the way-stations on the path to the
Friend.
To say Hu with the whole heart and spirit at each
moment
Is for the people of sincerity the remedy for their pain.
Hu, which the people of serene purity utter once
more,
Will arouse the spirits of those who have arrived.
When the invocation of Hu reaches the depths of the
heart
The traveller's existence is effaced.
With the uttering of Hu, the Reality unveils itself
And thus it is at each moment from His secret for
"those who remain steadfast".
Üftade, offer the invocation of Hu as a litany
That the traveller may come to know the secret.
Saying Hu
Hu is a dervish's rapture
Hu is a dervish's grandeur
Hu is a dervish's wealth
Uttering Hu is a dervish's litany
With Hu, one ascends every degree
Saying Hu is a dervish's guide
The gates of the way to the Friend appear
Then light surrounds the dervish
When he is liberated from seeing other than Him
The eye of the dervish's heart is opened
Then he will be able to see the beautiful face of the
Friend
And the dervish's secret consciousness will be opened
up
Üftade, if you desire the remedy for pain
Serve the dervishes by saying Hu.
Ob He' and You who is He'
(Ya Hu wa ya man Hu)
If you desire the Beloved, my heart,
Do not cease to pour out lamentations.
Observing His existence, reach annihilation!
Say "Oh He and You who is He".
Let tears of blood pour from your eyes
May they emerge hot from the furnace
Say not that He is one of you or one of us
Say "Oh He and You who is He".
Let love come that you may have a friend
Your distresses are a torrent
Sweeping you along the way to the Friend
Say "Oh He and You who is He".
Take yourself up to the heavens
Meet the angels
And fulfil your desires
Say "Oh He and You who is He".
Pass beyond the universe, this [unfurled] carpet
Beyond the pedestal and beyond the throne
That the bringers of good tidings may greet you
Say "Oh He and You who is He".
Remove your you from you
Leave behind body and soul
That theophanies may appear
Say "Oh He and You who is He".
Pass on, without looking aside
Without your heart pouring forth to another
That you may drink the pure waters
Say "Oh He and You who is He".
If you desire union with the Beloved
Oh Üftade! Find your soul
That the Beloved may appear before you
Say "Oh He and You who is He".
Good tidings arrived the' month he'was born
The beloved of God is the call to the community
The physician at each moment for all those who suffer
The intercessor for this community on the day of
resurrection
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
He has illumined the world with light
All souls are perfumed with his scent
For this purified one is the beloved of God
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
The king of the excellence of the prophets is Muhammad
The beauteous moon of the city of sainthood is
Muhammad
The pearl of the ocean of knowledge is Muhammad
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
The sultan on the throne of the law is Ahmad
The ocean underlying the sea of the way is Ahmad
The merchant of the pearl of reality is Ahmad
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
The servant whom God loves is Mustafa
His existence is for the universe the quintessence of
purity
He is the gift to the community from the favour of
God
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman and Haydar
He made of them guides for the believers
Niche of orientation and pulpit, this is the master of the
ascension
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
The taste and purity of the creatures in the two worlds
That is the beloved of God and His pure chosen one
(Mustafa)
For the universe of the heart, it is his light and his clarity
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
God said to him "If not for you, if not for you ..."
If you had not been, I would not have created the
skies,
That stone and dust could converse with him
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
It is he who guides spiritual warriors during the [holy]
struggle
He who intercedes for sinners on the day of
resurrection
He who causes life to be born in the hearts
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
Bless him with benediction and salutation
Celebrate his birth morning and evening
He is the saintly leader, spirit of the prophets,
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
Sustainer of the soul of poor Üftade
His resting place is forever union with God
He is the flame that burns in the city of Islam
Good tidings arrived the month he was born.
You must love'
You have to come soon to the Real
You have to find His wise ones
If you truly cannot find them
With all your soul and with all your heart, you must
love.
Those who have loved have found them
Their souls have reached the Real (God)
Their faith has become whole
With all your soul and with all your heart, you
must love.
Always trace out their tracks
Listen to their beautiful discourse
If you say you would like to see their faces
With all your soul and with all your heart, you
must love.
This dervish, this unhappy Üftade,
Has become a beggar on the road of God
May God fulfil his desire
With all your soul and with all your heart, you
must love.
The' way of the' Friend
Entrust your soul to the way of the Friend
If you don't, what else can you do?
If you abandon your soul
You will surely go with your secret consciousness.
Your body and your soul are a burden for you
Each atom of them bigger than a mountain
If you do not throw down this burden
You will have a host of troubles to endure.
One has said that the summit is close at hand
Here is the way to the Friend today
If you leave it until tomorrow
You will have many ages to wait.
Learn the rule of lovers
Devote yourself to nothingness
If you reduce your being to non-existence
You will surely find life everlasting.
Speak of the way of nothingness
Oh you suffering Üftade
Whoever takes that road
Will quickly arrive at the Real.
The' call to friends
This is the call to friends to come and realise Unity
To find the Real's (hakk) favour in the realised
Unity
That the universes of the heart may be filled with
light
This is the call to friends to come and realise Unity.
His people are those who see the Real God
Those who rejoin His perfection in the abodes
Those who become again guides for the travellers
This is the call to friends to come and realise Unity.
Come, let us enter the ocean of realised Unity
Come, let us see which ways are to be found
There to find the Real God's full satisfaction
This is the call to friends to come and realise Unity.
Behold what is ever the word of those who know
The greetings of the Real God reach down to the one
who invokes
God the Eternal remembers those who invoke Him
This is the call to friends to come and realise Unity.
The invoker who finds the light of Unity
Thanks the Real with all his soul and with all his
heart
God the Powerful displays His Beauty
This is the call to friends to come and realise Unity.
His contemplation reaches the station of union
He devotes his being to unceasing prostration
before God
His existence is absorbed in the ocean of light
This is the call to friends to come and realise Unity.
Such is the wish of poor Üftade
May the gracious Name of the Real be the guide
That his knowledge and remembrance be accepted by
God
This is the call to friends to come and realise Unity.
The' nightingale's lament
I
At dawn I heard the nightingale lamenting
Recounting the pain of all those who suffer
Those who heard him took pity and said
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love
I saw that his love-passion had overwhelmed his
reason
The rose's serene purity struck deep into his soul
So that he thought it was the remedy for his affliction
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
The fire of separation had taken over his soul
He was warbling love-songs in a blaze of passion
Its scent drew him deep into the rose garden
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Under the weight of its perfume he lost his senses
He lost all control of his body
So that he took on all the burdens of the world
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
He searched every corner of the garden
He could find no roses, neither red nor white
He had lost all hope of union, he knew not when it
could be
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
The rose season passed in this state of anguish
His soul burnt this time with the flame of
separation
His drunkenness passed, his cries abated
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Listen well to the words of Üftade the Nightingale
That you may trace out the tracks of the people of
gnosis
If you wish to see the face of the Friend
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
II
At dawn I saw where the nightingale had alighted
He had placed his lantern in the house (tekke) of
the rose
He had drawn his sword to gift his soul to the rose
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
He lost his reason until he no longer recognized
himself
His reason in ruins until he recovers from his rose
anguish
Never will those who are lovers of God perish
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
The hue of the rose paled, it lost its bloom
Its scent no longer reached the nightingale
No-one came any more to the rose garden
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Then reason returned to the nightingale's mind
Unable to see the rose, wherever he looked
Aflame with the fire of separation, he went forth
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Traversing land and sea in this anguish
Enduring such torment and pain
The thought of the rose's perfume gnawed away at his
heart
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
One man of God said: leave the ephemeral rose
Did you not know it was perishable since pre
-eternity?
No good can come out of a transient beauty
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Such is the supplication of poor Üftade
May the gift of God reach his soul
May His light and His clarity fill the hearts
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
III
At dawn I heard the nightingale lament
The scent of the rose had intoxicated his soul
He had lost himself, he knew not where
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Blood mixed with tears flowed from his eyes
His soul had foundered in the perfumed scent of the
rose
He had forgotten his exterior and his interior world
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Those who saw him pitied this poor sufferer
He flew in the sky vigilant, sleepless
The rose had reduced his soul to slavery
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Unless his soul is able to rejoin the beloved
And for his pain are found a thousand kinds of
remedy
This separated soul will never reach that land
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Plunged in the perfume of the rose, his existence
disappeared
Renouncing the rose, he prostrated himself before
God
Such is the eternal contemplation of lovers
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Now the rose became the nightingale's lover
She cried: "Oh sincere nightingale mad with love
May God make you deserving of His beauty'
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
These words are the nightingale of Üftade's soul
What he calls rose garden is the country of union
It is the hand of Divine Power which leads the lovers
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
IV
At dawn I saw the nightingale's bed
He had set up his tent in the shade of a rose
Wish for him to give up his soul and his possessions
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
He collapses drunk from the perfume of the rose
The fire of separation fills his head through and
through
The ocean of the heart boils and overflows
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Sometimes he weeps, sometimes he makes up verses
Sometimes taken with madness he cracks his head
against stones
Sometimes he crosses mountains, and winters in the
wilderness
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Sometimes he rests in silence, staring at nothing
His heart, forever bound to the rose, does not open
towards another
He enters into retreat and never comes out
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
He plunges himself into the pangs of torment
He doesn't know what he is
His only desire is to see the face of the Friend
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
He imagines that with that picture in mind he can
reach union
Laying his heart in shreds and tatters
Obviously he has never met a person who reached that
spiritual state
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love
Listen to the words of Üftade, the nightingale
Efface your intimate being in the scent of the rose
If you should really wish to see the face of the Friend
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
V
At dawn I heard the nightingale lamenting
Indulgently singing tender gazels
Branding the souls of the lovers who heard him
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
I said: "Oh nightingale mad with love and wonderment
How many times will you cry and call?
To reach reunion is not possible in this state"
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Put aside these songs and verses
Listen to what has been said by the pure elected
one
From white and black withdraw your existence
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Take the celestial Buraq to the country of
annihilation
If you wish no separation to stay in your soul
Then you will reach the refuge of the people of Unity
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
In that abode neither body nor spirit may be discerned
There neither sea nor ocean to be contemplated
There is the remedy for the pain of lovers
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
There is there neither plaintiff nor plaint
There is found neither desire nor inclination
There no mention made of lowest or highest
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
Such is the word of poor Üftade
No-one can see this station
So long as he has not reached the peace and blessing of
God
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
VI
At night I saw the nightingale of dawn
Flying high in the station of union
The meanings opened up and he spelt them out
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
I said: "Oh nightingale mad with love
You deserve to reach that abode
You who were sincere in the way of your beloved"
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
There remained in him no strength to reply
He knew there neither separation nor union
Such is the final destination of lovers
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
It was from annihilation that nothingness struck the
nightingale
He could see nothing other, be it white or black
None but the Creator knew his state
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
His existence sank in the ocean of reality
His prostration grew and grew in perfection
Thus is the eternal contemplation of lovers
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
When the nightingale is aloft, reality is his spirit
They are neither in the mountains nor in the nest
There is neither stone nor thorn in this sphere
Marvel at this poor nightingale mad with love.
These words do not apply to poor Üftade
He does nothing but trace out the tracks of the
gnostics
May God give him eyes to witness
Marvel at this nightingale, falcon in the land of the
Friend!
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Nightingale in the Garden of Love by Paul Ballanfat, Angela Culme-Seymour. Copyright © 2005 Paul Ballanfat. Excerpted by permission of Anqa Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
The translators,Acknowledgements,
Transliteration,
Preface,
Introduction,
THE POEMS,
The invocation of Hu,
Saying Hu,
Oh He and You who is He (Ya Hu wa ya man Hu),
Good news arrived the month he was born,
You must love,
The way of the Friend,
The call to friends,
The nightingale's lament,
The nightingale's praise,
May tidings come,
Let us love the Real God,
May God grant us guidance,
May God grant right direction,
May He grant us the grace of His Beauty,
Let us apply ourselves this day,
From my origin was I separated,
Free yourself of saying "I",
Shall I ever find the One?,
Will I reach the light?,
Tell me, where is the way to the country of the Friend?,
Guide us to the country of the Friend,
Give me tidings of the Friend,
The only remedy for separation,
The fasting moon has returned,
We have reached the fasting moon,
The value of fasting,
The fasting moon has gone again,
May we one day be His,
One with the One,
One drop,
In my rose garden,
Cure this pain,
The secret hidden within,
Come close,
Even closer,
Let me hear Your Beautiful Name,
Do not drive us away from Your door,
Come closer,
What ails you?,
Surrender your spirit,
The one who knows his origin,
Through Your invocation,
There is no other remedy,
The remedy for my affliction,
Surrender to invocation,
Come let us invoke the Real,
Let us invoke the Real on this day,
Let Your lovers see,
If you yearn,
An incurable pain,
No other wish,
Let me ...,
The state of the dervish,
Notes to the poems,
Bibliography,